1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a device which is of particular utility in laboratories for the study of chemical or biological reactions and particularly biochemical or enzymatic reactions produced by living organisms, particularly microorganisms, in the form of patient samples, cell suspensions, or the like. The invention is more particularly concerned with an improved device of the type described whereby, for example, cell suspensions may be introduced into a central receptacle, the cell suspensions distributed into reaction chambers by centrifugation or by a plunger or piston effect, and the metabolic utilization of chemicals or substrata by such cells or enzymes produced thereby may be observed by observing changes, e.g., density, turbidity, or color changes, within the individual reaction chambers of the device.
2. Prior Art
Devices of this kind are known in the art, but suffer from numerous disadvantages, among which may be mentioned particularly inconvenience and excessive labor, as well as possible variation between samples or sample contamination, all due to the inherent limitations of devices as previously provided. Among such devices having such inherent defects may be mentioned the devices of prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,367,841, 3,694,320, and 3,690,836, with respect to all of which the device of the present invention presents a most substantial improvement.